There are three certainties in life: Death. Taxes. And a crash in a Giro d'Italia stage. One close certainty, but not quite, is that 2012 Olympic road race champion, Mark Cavendish, will be in the crash. Yesterday was no different once again when just as the reigning World Champion was about to lock his missile on the line he was a passenger in a crash caused by Filippo Pozzato.
The result was an unlikely victory for Francisco Ventoso as other's such as Matthew Goss and Mark Renshaw who might have been expected to win the sprint had Cavendish been the only one to go down, were part of the pile up.
The crash ended the tour for Pozzato who with a broken hand was forced to withdraw from the race. "As I realized that I couldn't use my brakes or my derailleur, it appeared that I shouldn't try to continue the Giro," he said stating the obvious. "I would have become a danger in the peloton, for myself and for everyone else," he continued without realising that he already was given the crash.
But we all know crashes can happen to the best of them and Pozzato was sporting enough after the race to hold his hands up and accept the blame before watching the video and quickly backing down from the position of blame. "I took the responsibility for the crash but looking at the images later, it’s Alexander Kristoff who bumped into me and hit my hip on the left."
Canadian Ryder Hesjedal maintained the leaders jersey but not without a scare when his rival in second overall, Joaquim Rodriguez at just nine seconds, made a late break which failed to stick. Rodriguez doesn't appear to want to wait until the high mountains to lay claim to the race lead but instead seems intent on gaining the Pink jersey via time bonus'. Hesjedal will need to watch him close.
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The talented Mr. Sagan
How about that... two for two in California for Peter Sagan has left 191 riders in Italy thanking their lucky stars he decided to race over there instead. Sagan appeared to be the only man who was aware of the right turn yards before the line and who lined himself up for it appropriately. While everyone else jammed on the breaks, he rolled through at the front and with a huge gap gained by his momentum alone he could almost afford to sit up and wheelie up to the line for the victory. Can he make it three-from-three today? Well, if you're in Canada you can find out for we're being spoiled with live cycling coverage.
